The last time he saw his dad, Jacob Abedini was four years old. Today, he turns seven.

An American citizen and father of two children, Saeed Abedini has been held prisoner in Iran since 2012. He was visiting Iran to assist in the launch of a government-approved orphanage.

Inexplicably, and without due process, Abedini received an eight-year prison sentence that (if carried out) is considered a "virtual death sentence" by his legal advocates at the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). more >>

As the ongoing civil war in Syria has entered it's fifth year, with over 220,000 people dead, humanitarian agencies like Oxfam International have said that the collective failure of world leaders to bring the devastation to an end is a "stain on the conscience of the international community."

"This spiralling catastrophe is a stain on the conscience of the international community," Oxfam wrote in a report, assessing the civil war.

It added that despite several U.N. Security Council resolutions to protect civilians, the violence in the country has continued to intensify, while the humanitarian response has been underfunded. more >>

President Obama has engaged in military actions around the world as much as any other president. Since receiving the Nobel Peace Prize shortly after entering office, he has proven himself as aggressive as the most hawkish Republican president in history. This comes as no surprise in hindsight; when Obama was first running for president, he indicated he would bomb Pakistan, which even most Republicans opposed.

By April 2012, The New York Times was calling Obama "warrior in chief," saying he "has turned out to be one of the most militarily aggressive American leaders in decades." Law professor Jonathan Turley, considered one of the top left-leaning constitutional experts in the country, told MSNBC that Obama is worse than Bush or Nixon at launching unilateral, unconstitutional wars. Jack Goldsmith, who led the Office of Legal Counsel for part of the George W. Bush administration, says Obama has expanded war powers beyond any previous president.

The New York Times listed Obama's military accomplishments as of April 2012, more >>

In response to the liberal backlash against the 47 Republican senators who sent a joint letter to leaders of Iran about their nuclear negotiations with the Obama administration, conservatives have been quick to point out that, on several occasions, Democrats actually met with foreign leaders hostile to the U.S. in an attempt to undermine Republican presidents.

Philip Klein of the Washington Examiner wrote a piece Tuesday pointing to five different instances when Democrats tried to undermine Republicans presidents' foreign policy efforts.

These included a meeting between KGB officials and former Democratic Sen. John Tunney during the Cold War; 10 Democrat lawmakers voicing support for the Sandinista government of Nicaragua in 1984; former House Speaker Nanci Pelosi visiting Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2007; Democrats visiting Saddam Hussein's Iraq in 2002; and former Democratic President Jimmy Carter sending a letter to assorted nations in 1990 to stop George H.W. Bush from going to war with Iraq. more >>

Former Army Gen. David Petraeus, who admitted to sharing classified information with his former mistress and biographer Paula Broadwell and lying to the FBI about it, is still a White House adviser on Iraq and the Islamic State terror groups, according to reports.

Newsweek, which confirmed it with a White House official, reported that Petraeus, who is also former CIA director, has been advising the National Security Council on Iraq and ISIS, another name for Islamic State, since last summer.

Petraeus no longer has a CIA security clearance, the magazine added. more >>

US Senator Ted Cruz was correct in his claim that the Internal Revenue Service's tax code has more words than the Holy Bible.

At a speech Tuesday before the International Association of Fire Fighters, the potential Republican presidential candidate said, "On tax reform, we, right now, have more words in the IRS code than there are in the Bible — not a one of them as good."

In a fact checking article for The Washington Post, Michelle Ye Hee Lee found that Cruz's comment was correct. more >>